Outcome
by Mistflyer1102
Summary: Esme had hoped that it was possible to save and restore this house. Carlisle and Emmett disagree.


She was still pulling dust covers off of the furniture when she finally heard him walking up the stairs.

Esme let out a noise of dismay in the back of her throat as spiders and other insects crawled out from underneath the disturbed sheet. It was an accepted hazard with keeping houses across the country and not visiting them for almost a century at a time, not since the early 1940s in this case, but she couldn't help the inevitable crush of disappointment when she saw the half-eaten fabrics and spiders' nests. Carlisle had reassured her time and time again that it was all replaceable, but each piece of furniture had a memory or two attached to it that she was loathe to lose the last physical connection to. She pulled the rest of the sheet off, tossing it to the side carelessly as she knelt to examine for any other signs of unwanted guests—she loathed mice in particular—and any signs that the couch in question could be spared. Or at least a case she could make to save it, Rosalie and Alice were likely to be scouring the upper floors for anything that could be tossed in the coming weeks. A couch this old would struggle to make the cut.

"Esme?"

She tilted her head towards Carlisle's voice, but didn't look away. "Yes?" she asked, quietly grateful that she had thought to put old clothes on before crawling around on the floors up here. Everything would have to be scoured anyway, just in case. The family didn't know yet if Renesmee could actually get sick, but no one was ready to risk the detritus from an old house as the first real test. The little girl, much to her dismay, was already bundled to within an inch of her life to ward off the January cold of Alaska as the family waited in nearby Juneau for the house to be ready.

She heard the wood creak underneath his weight as he glanced back down the hall. It was just the two of them and Emmett assessing the state of the place before they started to move the rest of the family in. Emmett, she sensed, was slowly making his way upstairs, undoubtedly wary of the integrity of the old, ornate wooden staircase. Then Carlisle moved into the room, which used to be their old room, and settled himself down beside her as he said, "How goes things with the furniture up here?"

"I think I can save it." She jerked back, startled as a few mice crawled out of a hole of the floorboard and darted across the room for the wall that faced the backyard of the house. "Or not," she amended, leaning back on her heels as Carlisle chuckled softly beside her.

"It's been a while since we last here, we may have to start from scratch anyway since our family has expanded greatly since then," Carlisle said as she shifted to sit cross-legged beside him. "There is a bit of a jump between five and ten when it comes to space."

"Hm. Alice must have seen it coming, no wonder she wanted to go ahead and start looking for all of those local furniture companies," Esme said, a smile tugging the edge of her mouth as she looked around the dusty room. She sighed, and said, "Okay, maybe it needs a little remodeling."

Carlisle glanced around. "Maybe not a lot, it just needs a bit of cleaning up—"

_CRASH!_

Esme looked up in alarm even as Carlisle reacted before she did, gone from the room before she had a chance to draw in an unnecessary gasp. "Emmett?" she heard Carlisle call as she started to get up off the floor herself.

"I'm okay! Sorry Esme, the stairs are a lost cause," she heard Emmett say as she moved from the old bedroom, forcing herself to be slow and careful. She gaped when she arrived to the bannister overlooking the living room below, and saw the source of the noise.

There was a gaping hole in the middle of the staircase, dust swirling in the air. Carlisle was already edging carefully down the stairs, working to fight a smile and bring his composure back under control before he looked down the hole. "Are you all right, Emmett?" he asked, leaning forward slightly to get a better look down.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Friggin' termites, I wondered what was making that scratchy creaky noise," Emmett said, voice muffled slightly. "Sorry, Esme, I know you liked what you did with this place back then, but this shit has gotta go."

"It's okay, we were thinking that remodeling would be necessary anyway," Esme said, trying to keep her stress under control as Carlisle edged away from the stairs: he was too close to the hole for her comfort. "Alice is probably online shopping as we speak."

"Nah, she'll wait until she sees what you decide for the floor plans. She's planning her and Jasper's room, at most, right now," Emmett said, a faint crunching noise audible as he moved around in the storage room that had been underneath the stairs. "Huh. I had wondered where that box went. What do you say that you guys finish checking out the top floor, I'll finish down here, and we meet outside when we're done?"

"Sounds like a plan," Esme said, relaxing as Carlisle moved to join her. "Assuming we don't join you down first." She glanced at Carlisle and said in a quieter voice, "I am seriously questioning the integrity of this place now."

Carlisle just nodded and said, "At least it's just us in here now. Let's finish up so we can head back, maybe start making note of what things you want to save for the new house."

Esme nodded, kissing Carlisle on the cheek before she moved to the next room down the hall, aware that Carlisle would be close behind, most likely to catch her if she fell.

She made a mental note to unpack her box of empty graph paper, which was probably tucked away in one of their cars. It had been a while since she had a chance to design a new house, and it would be her first with Alice. She had a feeling that it was going to be an interesting evening.


End file.
